Eggs Hatched

I assume my boxer crabs eggs have hatched because after about a week of carrying them, they are now gone. Hopefully some critters in the tank got a nice meal out of them :) I really need to get her a mate!

Boxer crab with eggs

I learned the other day that my boxer crab is a she. She was MIA for about a week. Usually I can catch glimpses of her everyday but nothing for a week or more. I was kind of worried. Well, nothing to worry about. She reappeared the other day with a red belly full of eggs. I'm never able to get a good picture of her.....this is the best I could do:

The reef is 4 months old

Sorry for the lack of updates. My reef tank is now 4 months old as of June 8th. I replaced my frogspawn with a kenya tree. I've been looking for a leather type coral to replace it for awhile now. I don't want to mix softies and hard coral if I can help it. My gorgonia is technically a hard coral but I don't think it wars with softies like a frogspawn would.

I really love the kenya. I know they can get out of hand...but that is the goal for this tank....OUT OF HAND...LOL :)

The new kenya is located on the left side when looking at the photo. As always, click on picture for bigger size:

Mother's Day

I was able to get a fairly decent shot of my female pederson anemone shrimp. They really travel all around the tank now. My favorite is when they sit on my mushrooms.

Added a Frag-a-Saurus Rack

I picked up a frag rack from marine depot. It's the "stega" size with 6 or 7 holes. Yep....I'm running out of room...LOL!

It's a pretty cheap frag rack but nice quality. It holds on with suction cups and they are amazingly strong. Hasn't let go yet.

Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata

I just added my first gorgonia to a reef tank. I LOVE it so much. This one is a purple (bipinnate) sea plume gorgonia, Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata, from Florida waters.

I've read mixed reviews on the difficulty of this coral. Most say easy, some say difficult. Sea Plumes are a very common, photosynthetic, shallow water octocoral found throughout the Caribbean and Florida. This one is purple with white polyps. I'm including a closeup of the coral as well as a full tank shot of what it looks like in the tank. click on the photos to enlarge!

Pederson anemone shrimp

I ordered some new inverts for my tank. I got two Pederson anemone shrimp, 2 nano brittle stars, and a purple photosynthetic gorgonian. I've never had a gorgonian before. I've read mixed things on this. Some say they are easy to care for, some say they are difficult. I got the purple (bipinnate) sea plume gorgonia, Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata, from Florida. I'll highlight this tomorrow. Today I'll tell you about and show you my new shrimp!

Taken from the website where I bought them:

This is the anemone shrimp from the Caribbean called the Pederson’s Cleaner Shrimp, Periclimenes pedersoni. They are small shrimp with long wavy antenna that spend most of their time perched on anemones waiting for fish to come by for cleanings. They seem to prefer the corkscrew anemones and the knobby anemones that live on the offshore hard bottom habitats, but whey will host on just about any Caribbean anemone, including the corallimorphs such as ricordea. They are quite animated in an aquarium and will rock back and forth bouncing their antenna trying to attract the attention of the larger fish so they can check them for parasites.

I chose this species because my tank is mushroom dominated. I figured they would feel right at home here :)